Lot 1584 Dα

A student of Carle van Loo, Lagrenée won the Grand Prix de Rome in 1749, travelled to Italy and returned in France in 1753, where he started a brilliant career: Elected a member of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture in 1755, he started exhibiting at the Salon regularly; he later became court painter to Elizabeth, Empress of Russia, Director of the Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg, of the French Academy in Rome and later Honorary director-curator of the Louvre museum. Napoleon I conferred upon Lagrenée the rank of chevalier (Knight) of the Legion d'Honneur.
His popularity increaded expecially when he started preferring mythological themes to historical and religious sujets. It is in his mythological themes, more than in any other genre, the artist seems to be able to represent the episodes with delicate drawing, bold coloring and free composition.
In the present painting, Lagreneé depicts the moment when Tiresias saw the Goddess Athena bathing: This caused him the punishment of being blinded. Tiresias´ mother, Chariclo, a nymph of Athena, begged the Goddess to undo her curse: This was not possible and Athena decided to purify his ears, giving him the ability to understand birdsong and the gift of augury, as Callimachus writes in his poem "The Bathing of Pallas".
The work was first published and engraved by Dennel in 1775 in the Livret du Salon : «[…] 13. Tirésias, fameux Devin, ayant un jour regardé Pallas lorsqu'elle se déhabillait, devint aveugle sur le champ. […] appartiennent à M. Le Marquis de Very. »
The painting was exhibited with the companion “Apollo and Sibyl”, both owned by the Marquis of Verì, one of the patrons of Lagrenée, and famous collector of French XVIII Century art.